Saturday, March 30, 2013

This weeks game at the SESWC was a 1944 28mm Bolt Action Eastern
Front game.Colin Jack provided most of
the figures and the terrain.I
contributed a platoon of inexperienced Soviet infantry. The terrain on the table was relatively open.A German force of a reinforced battalion
supported by a Tiger, Panther, Jagdpanther and Panzer IV holding a line of isolated buildings was attacked by 2
Soviet platoons supported by 2 SU100s and 4 T34/85s.

SOLIDO T34/85s cross the open fields - more vehicles on the road

It proved to be a German victory when 2 Soviet platoons were
wiped out assaulting 2 of the buildings.Though we played multiple moves and there was much anti-tank fire only a
SU100 and a Panther had been knocked out
by the end of the game.

My Soviet inexperienced infantry reach some cover

Sadly I was so busy playing the game and talking to people
that I only managed to take these 2 photographs.

I also spent time this week adding a page to the blog giving
details of my Russian Napoleonic army. I also revised the design of the blog by widening the main blog section and right hand lists.

I then setup a 6ft by 6ft table at home and played 2
games with different players. In these
games we used the hidden rules in Bolt Action for the first time which worked
well.

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VIEW FROM RELIEF COLUMN END

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VIEW FROM THE TOWN END

All the 3 games involved at one end of the table a
British parachute battalion holding a town under attack awaiting a relief force
which had to come on at the other end of the table.A German force of 2 battalions was deployed
in the centre of the table with the task of attempting to take the town and
delaying the relief force.Any German vehicles
which arrived came on at either side of the table. The arrival of the British and German AFVs was diced for each turn and they were selected by chance from a variety of models.

All the games worked well but it was a hard or near impossible task for the Germans to take the town.

The final order of battle for the games is given below

BRITISH PARA PLATOON- VETERAN

HQ: 2nd LT (SMG), SMG, RIFLE

SECTION: NCO (SMG),2 SMG, 6 RIFLES, LMG

SECTION: NCO (SMG),2 SMG, 6 RIFLES, LMG

SECTION: NCO (SMG),2 SMG, 6 RIFLES, LMG

MMG TEAM

2” MORTAR TEAM

6 PDR AT GUN

BRITISH INFANTRY PLATOON - REGULAR

HQ:2nd LT
(PISTOL), SMG, RIFLE

SECTION: NCO (SMG),6 RIFLES, LMG

SECTION: NCO (SMG),6 RIFLES, LMG

SECTION: NCO (SMG),6 RIFLES, LMG

MMG TEAM

3” MORTAR TEAM

6 PDR AT GUN

TRANSPORT AS REQUIRED- 3 M3 HALFTRACKS (UNARMED) AND 2 LT TRUCKS

SCOUT CAR, HUMBER
ARMOURED CAR

AFVs–PICKED BY CHANCE.In the last game a Firefly, 75mm Sherman,
Cromwell and Churchill VII arrived.

Friday, March 22, 2013

I have continued to work away on my Napoleonic collection. As I wrote before I ordered the Elite 6Pdr
guns to re-equip my Russian foot batteries.I have now painted up all the new
guns. In the photo below the crew figures are by Foundry which I bought ready
painted from South Africa - I added some
more shading and rebased tem.

Russian 6pdr Foot battery

Liking the Elite guns I also ordered French 6pdr guns to
re-equip my French horse artillery batteries which had the small Foundry and Hinchliffe 4pdr guns.The Guard battery has Elite crews and the line battery crews are Foundry.The crew figures were painted by
Reinforcements by Post in Bangladesh as a commission whilst I painted the gun
models. I have now ordered some 12pdr guns from Elite to
replace the Foundry models in my Russian heavy foot batteries.

French Line 6pdr horse battery

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French Guard 6pdr horse battery

I have also
continued my work on the plastic tents from Renedra. Having shown the ridge tents here is a photo of the bell tents on a 60mm
round edged MDF base from Warbases.I must say that all deliveries from Renedra
have been very prompt.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Over
the past 2 weeks I have been getting back into wargaming.Last weekend I took part in a 12 player 2 day
Hail Caesar game.I will write a separate
report about that big game at a later date once I have got my Flickr account
reorganised. I am recovering from a virus attack which wiped out my
PC.

This
Saturday I helped with the SESWC display game for Albanich the Wargames show in
Dumfries.The display, figures and all
the supporting material were from the collection of Colin Jack.It was a 28mm game of an action in the Russo-Japanese
War.There was enough interest in the
display to keep us from playing the game to a conclusion.Still lots of questions about Colin’s faux
fur battle mat which I used for our AWI display at Albanich in 2012.

Russo-Japanese war game.....

The
host Dumfries club put on a very good looking FIW Muskets and Tomahawks
game.The West Coast wargamers – from
the west coast of Cumbria – put on an impressive 28mm Bolt Action game based
the Crossing of the River Bug scenario in the RapidFire Eastern front scenario
book.I have played that scenario myself
in 20mm with RapidFire.

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FIW - Indian allies land rom the river

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PZIII explodes on the Soviet mines

There
seemed to be more traders as Albanich this year.It is a relatively small show but it definitely
seemed busier this year than last year. It
was great to speak to so many people at the show.Overall
it was a good relaxing enjoyable day and I will be back next year.